OVERTIME PAY LAW
We recommend running your potential work overtime violations by an experienced overtime attorney, but generally several principles govern California overtime for all California employees:
- Overtime is due to persons primarily performing manual labor
- Overtime is not due to supervisors and managers regularly supervising or managing two or more full-time persons if they are paid twice minimum wage
- Overtime is not likely to be due to an employee who has a primarily intellectual profession in which they make independent decisions and use independent discretion
- California overtime is based upon the daily work day, but also comes into effect if an employee works more than 40 hours in a week. For example, an employee who works 7.5 hours six days a week is entitled to 2.5 hours of overtime pay for the week
- Employers must pay double time if the employee works more than 12 hours in a day
Some generalizations can be made about which jobs are likely to receive overtime and which are not.
THE FOLLOWING POSITIONS ARE GENERALLY ENTITLED TO OVERTIME PAY:
Employees performing assembly work, automotive repair technicians, bookkeepers and employees in accounts receivable and collectible, clerical workers, collectors, construction workers, cooks, cosmetic workers, data entry, day care workers, drivers, dry cleaning pressers, farm workers, film crews, fishers, grocery workers, hair stylists, janitors, laborers, maintenance workers, manufacturing workers, messengers, massage therapists, nurses, packers, personal assistants, porters, retail workers, security officers, sewers, social workers with are not licensed, strippers, ticket agents, wait staff, and warehouse workers
THE FOLLOWING JOBS MAY OR MAY NOT BE POSITIONS ENTITLED TO OVERTIME; IT IS BEST TO CONSULT WITH AN EXPERIENCED OVERTIME ATTORNEY REGARDING THE FACTUAL SPECIFICS OF THE JOB:
Broadcasters, computer programmers, dancers, lab technicians (consult a labor lawyer but if you are a scientist with an advanced degree conducting your own ideas of experiments you probably are not) outside sales, persons with advanced degrees, property managers, theater performers, writers
- Union Contracts may specify groups of workers are entitled to overtime if they are not entitled to overtime by law. The union contract creates the employees’ rights to overtime in these situations
THE FOLLOWING JOBS ARE USUALLY NOT ENTTILED TO OVERTIME:
Artists, certified accounting professionals, doctors, executives, lawyers, managers, theatrical personnel such as A-list actors
CALIFORNIA OVERTIME LAW
California labor laws are found in the California Labor Code and California Code of Regulations. There are so many California labor laws on overtime as well as California and Federal interpretations that it is ill advised for employee to, on their own, make determinations whether they are entitled to overtime and how much they are owed. We highly recommend calling 1-877-525-0700 to find out if you have an overtime case, and whether it is large enough for our firm to handle individually or on a classwide basis. Even if it is not we may be able to advise you to call the proper Department of Labor, or refer your case to a smaller firm who would take your case.
Besides overtime laws requiring certain classes of employees to be paid overtime, there are legal rights protecting the jobs of employees who demand overtime wages. Many of our firm’s overtime cases involve wrongful terminations because an employee asked for overtime pay. Other cases involve employees quitting because they are not paid overtime. Employers who retaliate against employees who ask to be paid overtime may be required to pay punitive damages and/or a California Labor Code Section 1102.5 penalty. Employers who fire employees for making legitimate complaints about their entitlement to overtime engage in wrongful termination.
Our California overtime lawyers handle individual, multi-employee, Private Attorney General (PAGA), and class actions for employee overtime. Our firm founder, Karl Gerber, started handling overtime cases for employees in 1993. Our employee labor attorneys do not charge employees any money up front. We advance all court costs. Our win rate is high and we take our overtime cases seriously. We have handled more than 1,640 employee lawsuits and binding arbitrations against this state’s largest employers and law firms.
Although not a guarantee, nor prediction on your overtime case, we have obtained the following case results for overtime violations:
$800,000 for emergency and disaster workers
$750,000 to hotel workers not paid overtime
$515,000 for FEMA workers
$400,000 for phlebotomists not paid overtime because they had to work off the clock
$175,000 for two limousine drivers
$175,000 for several exotic dancers not paid overtime
CALL 1-877-525-0700 FOR A CALIFORNIA OVERTIME LAWYER
CALIFORNIA FARM WORKERS GET OVERTIME
California farm workers are now entitled to overtime for every hour they work past 8 hours in a day. For example, if a farm worker works a 9 hour day they are owed one hour of overtime. Farm workers who work only 34 hours in a week are still entitled to 6 hours of overtime if two of their work days were 11 hour days.
The previous law that required farm workers to work 60 hours a week in order to get overtime was repealed in September of 2016! Accordingly, double time pay for farm workers goes into effect after they work 12 hours in a day.
Farm workers who are paid piece rates are also entitled to overtime based upon their piece rates which must be minimum wage or higher. It is best to consult with an experienced overtime lawyer to determine if you are properly paid piece rates and they are properly reflected on your pay stubs. Failure to properly reflect piece rate pay leads to paystub violations which entitle employees to penalties for each wrong paystub.
Like other California employees, farm workers are considered nonexempt and are entitled to overtime if they do not regularly manage 2 or more full-time employees more than 50% of the time and earn twice minimum wage for every hour they work. Farm workers such as pickers, egg handlers, tractor drivers, loaders, packers, seed sorters, and feeders are usually entitled to overtime. Seed engineers may not be entitled to overtime if they have an advanced degree and are primarily involved in genetic experimentation they conduct.
Foremen who supervise a crew of 5 full-time farm workers and spend a lot of time hiring, firing, supervising, or using independent discretion are not entitled to overtime if they earn twice minimum wage. Technically, supervisors of two or more full-time employees who spend more than half their time supervising are exempt if they earn twice minimum wage.
We have represented many supervisors who either do not earn twice minimum wage, do not regularly supervise two or more full-time employees, or do not regularly use independent discretion to do their jobs. If you fall into those categories you may be entitled to overtime pay.
Contact our California Overtime Attorneys
at 1-877-525-0700 if you think you are owed overtime